Man fined £110 for sending abusive email to Tory MP [Profanity]

Aug 23, 2012

A man who abused a Tory MP in a crude email after the politician was headbutted by a rival at Westminster was fined £110 and ordered to pay £100 costs yesterday. Nicholas Scales told MP Stuart Andrew to “stop wasting police time and get your fucking job done”, Leeds magistrates court heard.

Scales said Eric Joyce, the Labour MP who attacked Andrew in the Strangers Bar at the House of Commons in February, “probably knocked some sense into your small-minded Tory mind”.

Nicholas Scales sent Stuart Andrew the email after the MP was headbutted by a Labour rival in a Westminster bar

The rant continued, saying if the MP had ever been out in Leeds or Bradford he would have known how to defend himself.

The court heard how Scales, 41, of Upper Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, sent the email to Andrew’s constituency office in Leeds and it was read by a secretary. It arrived three days after the MP was attacked by Joyce, MP for Falkirk.

Scales, who pleaded guilty to sending a malicious communication last month, was not working and has mental health issues. He will pay the fine and costs out of his benefits.

Femi Odenekan, defending, told magistrates: “It was offensive, I make no bones about it. The defendant accepts that.”

Lin Burgess, chairman of the bench, told him: “We note your previous good character, early guilty plea and co-operation with the police and have had the benefit of a lengthy pre-sentence report. We consider this a serious offence due to the content of the communication sent.”

She issued a restraining order preventing Scales from contacting the MP directly or indirectly for 12 months